Saturday, October 15, 2016

During the 51st ASOCOPI conference in Bogota, Colombia on October 13-15, professor Rocío Monguí from Abraham Lincoln School did an inspiring plenary where she presented the amazing work she and her research group TicALS are doing in order to strenghten the use of technology at her school. It was very inspiring to see how a school teacher is so engaged with research, and how she has managed to impact her community so strongly. They even have a scientific journal, Revista TicALS, where teachers are publishing their research reports and pedagogical reflections.

Teachers at Abraham Lincoln School are working on Flipped Classrooms in Math classes, Digital Citizenship, Using Clickers, Using multiple Web 2.0 tools (Classcraft, Classdojo, Mindmap, Bubbl.us, Goconqr, Chamilo LMS, Kahoot, Padlet, Wikispaces, MyEnglishLab, Video maker, Camtasia, etc --the list is long), they are also documenting the work and presenting it in academic events along the country.

I have no affiliation to Abraham Lincoln school or Professor Monguí, I just think as a Colombian teacher technologist engaged in the use of information and communication technologies in the classroom, I have to recognize the work of colleagues who are pursuing the same goal. Professor Monguí inspires me because she is working at a school, making a huge difference in a group of teachers and students and helping them grow and inserting the school in the discussion around technology that is happening mostly among Universities in the world. It is admirable how she would do all this from her school classroom and position.

In Colombia, research normally happens in Universities or it is somehow controlled by Universities (through MA and undergraduate thesis projects), but to see such a robust research group created and functioning merely within and for the school is rare. That is why I have decided to write this post, because I think it si a great and brave idea. Situating research in the school setting would really make a difference in our country's education.